


The Sunless Lands

by koalaboy



Category: The Sandman (Comics)
Genre: Gen, and has a raven form cause uhhhh, cocks gun, dont you dare make it one, i dunno dream goes by shy/hyr, this is not a ship thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 08:36:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20636246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalaboy/pseuds/koalaboy
Summary: Dream and Destruction watch a star die.





	The Sunless Lands

The sunless lands were strange. Whenever you left a place and returned, it was never quite the same. It left a sort of ache in your soul for the familiar—for home. It changed too rapidly. Destruction could travel between his island and the lands freely, being both ‘dead’ in that he was no longer considered Endless, but alive in that he was still eternal. Lately, he had stayed in the sunless realms with Despair and Dream, venturing out only to check on Barnabas and Delirium. However, every so often a deep sorrow burned within him, uniquely his own so much so that Despair could not sense it. He had tried to write it in poetry, sculpt it into clay. And it had worked. For a bit. He had wandered for a while now, lost, and lonely; finally coming to pause upon the peak of a mountain. The forest below was shrouded in mist and reflected the night sky stars in its wet, rain-soaked foliage. He sighed, perched himself on a piece of flat rock, and breathed in the thin mountain air. “She must be watching me with disapproval,” he thought, looking up towards the black of night; towards his mother.

Destruction felt existence shift, he didn’t bother to look over his shoulder to see who he knew was already there. Shy would have been looking for him.

“Hello, syster mine,” he greeted hyr. 

Dream folded hyr hands behind hyr back and nodded politely, “You have not been home for some time, brother.”

“Oh? Did you miss me?” he asked.

Shy did not reply, instead following his gaze up to the sky. They were siblings and shy was familiar with some of his moods--they had the same mother, after all, “She does not concern herself with us anymore, you should return the gesture in kind. It— it would do you well.”

“Mother and Father visited me before I left,” he confessed. The thin air caught in his throat.

Dream stared at him. Shy had not heard many things shy did not know already from dreams. But Destruction did not dream; shy realised shy did not know many things about him. Shy came to stand beside where he sat, taking some pride in finally being taller.

“Mother told me she would not consider me her son if I were to leave. And Father… he called me his ‘greatest shame’. For all of eternity. For them, this was worse than me being struck down in batlle. They would have rather I died in the flames of war than pursue any other path.” 

“What they wish and Destiny’s paths are very different things,” Dream closed hyr eyes, “I am sorry.”

Destruction shrugged, and with a roll of his shoulders, the weight of their parents’ words left them both. It was enough to make Dream smile ever so gently.

“Ishtar has not joined you here yet. I expected her to,” shy observed.

“No,” he replied, “She is a goddess of war. I am just me.”

“Even so,” shy hesitated, “I believe I may have acted unjust towards her in the past… towards you. My quarrels with Desire had clouded my judgement on your relationship. I do not think she was a bad influence on you, truly.” 

Destruction laughed softly and reached his hand out to hyr. His palms were rough with callouses from the handles of gardening and painting tools. Shy hesitated, but slipped her thin, dark fingers into his own. He kissed the top of hyr hand. 

“Do you miss the dreams?” He asked, after they had both sat in silence for some time.

“I keep the dreams of the past with me,” shy explained, “And a part of myself is still in my realm.”

“Danny-boy,” he noted.

Shy nodded and looked up at the sky again.

“A star is about to die,” shy said.

“I know. It’s why I’m here.”

The old star folded in on itself time and time again, rapidly trying to sustain consciousness. It wavered, clawing out into the darkness for fuel. Tens of thousands of years of burning and now it was dying. It danced a fleeting, helpless tango of light and gas and combustion until finally it lit up the entire sky in one glorious flash of goodbyes. And it was gone. 

Shy watched the space where the star had once been, gathering her thoughts, “I do not remember it being so... unhinged.”

“No,” he sighed, “I used to guide them. That was one of mine. That was one of the ones I created.”

“You always strived for longevity as opposed to brightness.”

“I did not want to see them a second time.” 

“Ah,” Dream took hyr hand from his and walked until shy could see the trees immediately below them, “When the last of their light is gone, our older sister will come for them, it is not over just yet.”

A smile overcame his soft, bulky features. He smiled so easily these days, “I suppose so. Are you going flying?”

“I thought I might,” shy said, “Will you join me?”

“Oh, no, I’ll take the long way down, lassie. I have much to contemplate.”

“You are going to write poetry again?”

“I am,” he bounced excitedly on the balls of his feet.

Shy smiled, “I will look forward to it, brother. It has been so long since I have heard a good one.”

Dream lifted hyr arms, which transformed themselves into gigantic, black wings which shimmered in the night. Hyr form shifted, feathers sprouting from where hyr hair was until they covered hyr entire body. Shy crouched, a horrific mixture between creature, humanoid-being, and raven. Destruction thought shy was adorable. Shy called softly to him, her tone scratchy and ear-piercing. 

“Oh, alright,” he muttered and ran his fingers through hyr feathers. Shy ruffled them.  “Safe flight,” he called, watching her launch into the air and soar above the forest. 

The tales of dragons had to come from somewhere.  Destruction began his trip down the mountain towards home and his family.


End file.
